Where Silence Has Lease
' |image= |series= |production=40272-128 |producer(s)= |story= |script=Jack B. Sowards |director=Winrich Kolbe |imdbref=tt0708843 |guests=Diana Muldaur as Dr. Katherine Pulaski, Earl Boen as Nagilum, Charles Douglass as Haskell, Colm Meaney as Transporter Chief |previous_production=The Child |next_production=Elementary, Dear Data |episode=TNG B02 |airdate=26 November 1988 |previous_release=The Child |next_release=Elementary, Dear Data |story_date(s)=Stardate 42193.6 |previous_story=The Child |next_story=Elementary, Dear Data }} =Summary= While on a charting mission, the Enterprise discovers a patch of pure blackness in space; probes launched into the area simply disappear. As they study it further, the patch expands and soon envelops the Enterprise, leaving them in a black void with sensors reporting complete nothingness outside. Picard orders the ship on a return course, but they find that they cannot escape; they leave a stationary beacon behind them, only to have it reappear ahead of them again. A Romulan Warbird suddenly decloaks in front of the ship and attacks, and Picard orders the crew to return fire; they destroy the Warbird, but Picard is suspicious of how easily. The crew then detect what appears to be their sister ship, the USS Yamato, approaching, but it does not respond to hails. Commander Riker and Lt. Worf beam over to search the ship, where they find it empty, with inconsistencies in its construction, including more seemingly impossible physical loops. The Enterprise then detects an exit from the darkness, but cannot lock onto the away team to retrieve them before the opening disappears. The Yamato begins to fade away, but the Enterprise is able to beam Riker and Worf back just in time. More openings appear in the blackness, each closing as soon as the Enterprise approaches them. Picard realizes that they are being manipulated, and orders a full-stop. Suddenly, an entity appears, calling itself Nagilum. It is curious about the humans and their "limited existence", and would like to test the limits of the human body. It causes Ensign Haskell to experience violent convulsions and fall to the floor dead. Nagilum then states that he wants to know everything about death, asserting that it would take less than half of the Enterprise's crew to complete his experiments. Picard decides to activate the ship's self-destruct sequence rather than submit to Nagilum's further experiments. As the crew prepares for their end, Picard is tested again by Nagilum through doppelgangers of Counselor Troi and Lt. Commander Data, both of whom question the self-destruct order. As the countdown nears zero, the void suddenly vanishes, leaving the Enterprise in normal space. Picard orders the ship to move away at high speed, and when he is finally satisfied that they are truly free, cancels the self-destruct sequence. As the Enterprise continues on its mission, Picard is met by an image of Nagilum on his ready-room computer. Nagilum offers his evaluation of humanity, criticizing the race's faults and claiming they have nothing in common with his kind. Picard disagrees, pointing out that their recent encounter shows that both races are curious, which Nagilum concedes to before disappearing. =Errors and Explanations= Plot Oversights # In all, the Enterprise fires two probes into the area of blackness. Riker says that the second disappears sooner than the first. Yet Wesley pipes up and says he has charted the boundary of the “hole,” and the ship can move closer it Picard chooses. lsn’t this just a little presumptuous? It the probes disappeared at different locations, doesn't that imply that the boundary moves? And even it the probes actually disappeared at the same location, isn't this a three-dimensional object with lots of outcroppings? How can you know where a boundary is on an object like that with only two plot points? Maybe both probes were scanning in all three dimensions? # While preparing to beam over to the Yamato, Wort tells Riker that he’s familiar with the ship and suggests that they beam to the aft station of the Yamato’s bridge. Doesn't the Yamato turn out to be almost an exact copy of the Enrerprise? (aside from the weird spatial distortions, of course). Wouldn't Riker be familiar with the layout of the Yamato as well? Or Picard? Or anybody who lives on the Enterprise? The Yamato interior may not be exactly identical to that of Enterprise. Changed Premises # In discussing the area of blackness, Riker asks Data if there are any records on anything similar. Data checks and responds that there isn‘t. However, Kirk‘s Enterprise encountered an area of darkness in The Immunity Syndrome.Data could have taken Picard at his word, and only searched for areas of blackness, which may not have included the area scanned during the events depicted in The Immunity Syndrome. # This episode cinches O‘Brien's demotion sometime between Power Play and Realm of Fear. When I noted that O‘Brien suddenly wore a single hollow pip in “Realm of Fear" and wondered why he was demoted, l received all manner of letters proclaiming that O'Brien was never an officer, that those pips he wore were really some type of enlisted man's rank, and that the single hollow pip was actually a promotion (something like a chief master sergeant). Yet, in this episode, just before beaming over to the Yamato, Riker calls O'Brien “Lieutenant. ”(There‘s a story floating around Trekdom that O'Brien only received a field promotion to lieutenant from Picard and lost it for some reason before “Power Play.‘ Seems a bit convoluted to me.) O'Brien may have received a temporary field commission, due to his status as head of the transporter section, and later chose to revert to being an NCO for some reason. Equipment Oddities # After Riker tells Wesley to ﬂy the Enterprise out of the void on impulse, an outside shot of the ship shows it taking off. Then the scene returns to the bridge. if you look closely at the under- side of the right armrest of Picard’s chair, you'll see that the bulb has burned out. (It comes back on later, so either a Starﬂeet maintenance crew ran up in the middle of the crisis to replace the bulb, or the later bridge scenes were actually shot before this scene.) Maybe it managed to repair itself? # Riker and Worf make it back to the Enterprise, storm out of the transporter room, and storm onto the bridge. Miraculously, the phasers and tricorders they carried have disappeared. Riker seems very anxious to speak his piece to Picard as he stalks off the turbolift. It doesn’t seem as it he would take this moment to drop by ship's stores. Riker and Worf probably handed their equipment to a subordinate en-route to the bridge. Internet Movie Database Incorrectly regarded as goofs # When Picard and Riker set the auto-destruct, the computer asks for a time interval, and after a spirited discussion, they set the time for 20 minutes. In 11001001, the time interval was set by the computer at five minutes, which suggests that this was the standard interval, and, at the time, their only option, given their situation. (IMDB) There is nothing to suggest that the interval cannot be altered as desired under any circumstances. '''IMDB entry tt0708843 Nit Central # ''Keith Alan Morgan on Wednesday, May 12, 1999 - 4:51 am:''When trying to show the captain the area of blackness Data claims it is visible on the screen, then Picard has to magnify the image. Why didn't Data just magnify the image to begin with? (Or does Picard just need glasses?) '''He didn't have Picard's permission to magnify the image straight away. # When Data searches records for similar areas of blackness he says there is nothing in Federation records. Well, what about checking non-federation records? While I realize Data is an android with a computer memory, shouldn't they check the ship's computer for this information? Maybe the programmers had put information in it that Data did not have? How are they supposed to access non Federation records? # Worf can't get the Yamato's computer to answer him and Riker says, "Let's find a turbolift to the Bridge." If the ship's computer is not working, then how does Riker expect the turbolift to work? the turbolift may be equipped with an emergency manual control system. # At the beginning of the show Picard says that there has never been a manned exploration of this region of space, but when talking to Nagilum, Picard says that they represent a Federation of Planets in this area. It probably became Federation territory long before anyone bothered to explore it. # Nagilum needs to kill one third to one half of the crew to understand death, but didn't Worf tell of a Klingon legend about an area of blackness that swallows ships? Presumably, this refers to Nagilum, but if Nagilum has been swallowing ships for all these years, then why doesn't he understand death yet? If the Klingon legend is about Nagilum, then his claim about killing the crew must be a lie to see how Picard and the crew will react. In other words a psychological test. Also if the Klingon legend does refer to Nagilum, it also explains why Nagilum didn't bother to examine Worf earlier on the bridge as Klingons are, by now, old hat. The legend may not refer to Nagilum. # SOphie Hawksworth on Wednesday, March 06, 2002 - 2:35 pm: In The Naked Now, Data took a long time to check for records of similar phenomenon, needed the science station to do it, and only arrived at the solution when Riker have him a big clue. Pres on Tuesday, August 22, 2006 - 7:03 am: Well having looked it up then, now he already knows all that stuff, doesn't he? :) =Notes= =Sources= Category:The Next Generation Category:Episodes